Touch Ensemble directed by Heidi Chan

Touch Ensemble is UQ’s iPad and electroacoustic music ensemble, exploring the possibilities of mobile digital music making. Established by Dr. Eve Klein, and featuring UQ Students, the ensemble uses iPads, laptops, acoustic instruments, voices, and other equipment to create spatialised and immersive soundscapes, engaging arrangements, and original electroacoustic compositions.

On Monday 27 May, ensemble director Heidi Chan presents a program of student-composed work centred on the theme of “blue”. Under atmospheric lighting, the ensemble will take their audience on an immersive journey through electronic pieces, electro-acoustic works, and soundscapes.

 

Members 

Amber Ostopowicz 

Dongyu Wang 

Jenna Kim

Lichang Liu

Soul Sung

Xiaoheng Lu

Xinrui Yuan

Yuanyuan Liu

Yuqing Lou

 

Order of Works

Prelude: “The Call of the Spring Brook” from The Reawakening, Heidi Chan

Sunset, Yuanyuan Liu

Scorpio, Amber Ostopowicz

Naughty Mouse, Dongyu Wang

Sailing in the Ocean, Jenna Kim

After the Corner, Xiaoheng Lu

Deep Sea, Soul Sung

Before Dark, Xinrui Yuan

Hometown, Yuqing Lou

First Sight, Lichang Liu

 

About the Music

Prelude: “The Call of the Spring Brook” from The Reawakening, Heidi Chan

“The Call of the Spring Brook” is a soundscape from The Reawakening, an experimental inter-disciplinary research project with a fusion of music, nature sound, poetry, visual art, science and technology. Inspired by Tang Dynasty poet Wang Wei and created with reference to the theoretical framework of eco-musicology, this soundscape is created with layers of field recordings, imitated sounds of the natural world and the ancient guqin. It embraces the deep blue light, embodies the quest for my musical identity and explores the interplay of composer’s self with the wider world.

 

Sunset, Yuanyuan Liu

This is my first contact with digital music and composing so my aim of composition is just having a simple understanding of it, and then make a more complicated creation after class. My composition is Sunset, after sunset is a dark blue sky.

 

Scorpio, Amber Ostopowicz

The iPad ensemble composition is inspired by the water element of the zodiac sign—Scorpio. The improvisation exploits the pulling of solo passages, as well as metaphors for the depth and emotional fluidity of water, in order to capture the landscape of the Nile River. Scorpio is a rather expressive movement that ideally attempts to imitate the qualities of an improvisation, within a timed meter. The clash of pitch bending and non-traditional sounds hope to illuminate the depth of the emotions surrounding water.

 

Naughty Mouse, Dongyu Wang

This piece is inspired by a cartoon clip of two little mice floating and playing on the sea. I think this piece is very consistent with the theme of blue in the concert. In addition, the melody line of this piece uses many lines similar to the waves, which sounds like swimming in the sea.

 

Sailing in the Ocean, Jenna Kim

This composition describes the narrative journey of sailing in the ocean to represent the theme of blue. The feeling of danger is expressed to reveal unexpected situations of the journey. As the main emphasis is the gap between acoustic and technology, each player will be changing their instruments during the performance.

 

After the Corner, Xiaoheng Lu

I clearly know that the piece write for this class should be the level of high school students. Therefore, in this piece, I used many long notes and synth effects to decrease the difficulties of playing. Although it seems to be an easy piece, actually, it contains many harmonic changes. That is what I want to display on the concert: let audiences feel the color of harmonic progressions. I add the Asian melodies in the middle of this piece. Blue is a popular color used in many Asian art, for example, the traditional painting.

 

Deep Sea, Soul Sung

The Deep Sea tries to express a person's view under the depth and unpredictable volume of ocean by pouring the sound over the concert hall filled with blue light. The smart string plays six chords (Em, D, Am, B, C, F#m) repetitively to describe the unchanging, empty and unpredictable depth of deep sea. The melody played by Cello, Flute and Ocarina is written in a Korean pentatonic scale. The melody expresses a sense of distance to the sea horizon in contrast to vertical expression by smart string. The piano arpeggio that played at the end of the melody helps to drag the feeling deeper into the ocean.

 

Before Dark, Xinrui Yuan

Before Dark is a very soft and blue song, which presents a scene that the sun goes down and the tide goes out. This music uses the repetitive technique that a simple melody is played constantly, but the whole music could become abundant and colorful through instrumental combination.

 

Hometown, Yuqing Lou

I came up with this melody in the night when I was homesick, I want to express a beautiful and normal scenario of village in China and my miss of my hometown and childhood. The single sound of ocarina starts the music, sounds like memory coming slowly. Then I used violin and choir sound to show the main part of the music, the melody is a little sad but snug, like an old lady talk about her story for children. Finally, I used ocarina sound again to make the music back to peace. The whole song reflects a beautiful but a little sad scenario for us which suits the concert theme of blue.

 

First Sight, Lichang Liu

My composition is inspired by the ocean and the sunset. This piece expresses the freedom and carefree life in the jungle. People living in a countryside and get away from the hustle and bustle of city life. Starting with a car engine and birds chirping in the woods, it creates an atmosphere that blends in with nature. The note of violin as the main melody shows a cheerful environment. Glockenspiel creates a romantic backdrop as the second major instrument.